Machinefabriek“Vergezichten”

If you’ve ever dicked around on an old Wurlitzer organ at an antique store, or practiced your sixth-grade piano recital on your neighbor’s shitty electric keyboard, or been to this website, then you’ve probably used drum beat presets.

To some of us, these drum presets (when they are in a keyboard instrument) exist so we can play Pachabel’s Canon in D in a bunch of funny rhythms and try to impress drunken friends. To others, they serve as the groundwork to build cutesy twee tunes. For Dutch musician Rutger Zuydervelt (a.k.a. Machinefabriek), built-in presets on a musical instrument are just another everyday noise, sounds of our planet that should be recorded as if they were a babbling brook or a tribal rain dance.

On his newest release, Vergezichten, Machinefabriek weaves in a whirly organ preset rhythm through layers of hovering ambience and rumbling bass tones, as if it were a rare field recording of a spontaneous, unique moment in time. Zuydervelt’s like bajillionth release is a 10-inch record out on March 15 from Alien Transistor, and comes with (as always) impeccably designed artwork.